I. 
§t0tor£) of $atitt * 
I T was the 6th of December, 1492, that Christopher Colum¬ 
bus discovered the Island of Hayti. For this Caribbee 
name, the great navigator substituted that of Hispaniola, in 
honor of Spain, his adopted country. 
It was the first land in America on which Europeans were to 
settle, and it was the first where the peaceful aborigines who 
inhabited it were to fall beneath the devouring activity of their 
new masters.. The five caciques, who divided the authority, 
were subdued, some by the flattering manners of the Spaniards, 
and the rest by the force of their arms. 
The brevity of this sketch forbids us to relate the many 
changes of the long drama which transformed this happy and 
populous island into a blood-stained desert. We refer those 
who are curious to learn this lamentable story, to the Life of 
Columbus, by Washington Irving. Suffice it to say, that the 
conquerors, having found quantities of gold in the country, 
abandoned themselves with eagerness to the research of this 
metal; and the aborigines, men little accustomed to labor, 
forced by their masters to the fatiguing work of the mines, quickly 
succumbed. 
The discovery of the richer mines of Mexico caused those of 
* Translated from the original sketch of Mr. Auguste Elie, of Port-au- 
Prince, which was written expressly for this volume. 
